Unmet needs in basic immunopharmacology education: A call for target-based, cross-specialty training programs

Biologic and immunomodulatory agents now account for roughly one-third of annual FDA drug approvals and are rapidly migrating from specialty clinics into community, ambulatory, and primary-care settings. Despite this shift, immunopharmacology is inconsistently represented as a distinct, integrated area within pharmacy and medicine curricula. This Commentary proposes a target-based pedagogical framework to strengthen such learning within existing pharmacy education.

Converging evidence points to variability rather than uniform deficiency. Within pharmacy education, a 2019 survey found only 51.4% of U.S. programs offered a dedicated immunology course, although immunologic content is also delivered within integrated foundational courses that a course-title search may not capture; the 2025 NAPLEX Content Outline does not explicitly assess immunopharmacology as an integrated discipline; and the 2023 ACCP Pharmacotherapy Toolkit places many autoimmune conditions below Tier 1, which can constrain dedicated curricular time. Separately, in immuno-oncology, 74-81% of surveyed clinicians report knowledge gaps in agent safety. Biosimilar reluctance persists despite robust safety evidence, and interpretive confidence in applying pharmacogenomics to immunomodulators remains variable even though pharmacogenomics education is now required. Crucially, the prevailing disease-first organization of curricula can obscure the transversal, target-driven logic that unifies modern immune-targeted therapy.

A "Target → Drug → Disease" framework, integrating foundational disciplines with active learning, offers a scalable response. Beyond pharmacy and medical curricula, the framework is directly relevant to physicians and to pharmaceutical-industry personnel-executives, medical affairs staff, medical science liaisons, and sales representatives-who must communicate complex mechanistic and safety information accurately. Preparing this broad workforce for the expanding reach of immunomodulators requires proactive, cross-specialty curricular integration.